Stephen F. Austin

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

Part 1: How It All Started

by Bob Heinonen

Stephen F. Austin’s father, Moses Austin, was really quite a remarkable man--as were his fathers before him. In fact, Moses’ great-great grandfather, Richard Austin, came to the New World in 1638. That is over 130 years before the American Revolution. Richard Austin was but a simple tailor with a wife and two boys who settled in Charlestown just across the Charles River from Boston. They were Puritans that had left England because of religious persecution. Unfortunately, Richard died shortly after arriving. It must have been a very meager existence for the family without him, but somehow the boys went on to receive an education and became quite prominent in their community. And, with every generation of Austin thereafter, the Austin family became a little better educated….and a little wealthier.

Stephen’s father was no exception. Before Stephen was born, his father and his brother owned a dry goods store and a wholesale store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And then they decided to add another business venture. Moses went to Richmond, Virginia, where he opened another store. It is in Richmond that Moses married Maria (pronounced Mah rī’ ah) Brown, who was a gentlewoman he had known for some years back in Philadelphia. The couple did quite well in Richmond, but then Moses and his brother decided to add yet another business venture. In 1789, they purchased the rights to a lead mine in southwestern Virginia and Moses and Maria moved there.

The mine, whose lead deposits had been discovered accidentally in 1756, had been developed on and off since then. When Moses and his brother bought it, the mine had not been used for several years and was overgrown and wild. Thirteen years earlier, in 1776, the mine became an important source of lead shot for American revolutionary guns, but over the twelve years of the revolution the output had steadily declined.

It was at the mine that the word “lynching” was born. In 1776, Charles Lynch, Jr., was made superintendent of the mines and was ordered by the Virginia government to protect the area around the mines from people unfriendly to the American cause. Lynch was the judge and jury. When he found a suspect guilty, he would require the guilty party to shout “Liberty Forever!” and then he gave them thirty-nine lashes on their bare back. If they refused to shout “Liberty Forever!” he hung them by their thumbs and gave them the thirty-nine lashes. This became known as “lynch law” and evolved into “lynching”. Of course, all of this was before Moses Austin’s time.

After seven years of developing the mine, it began to lose money. But Moses Austin, like his fathers before him, just because business was not going well, didn’t become conservative and pull back. No, like his fathers before him, he decided to add yet another business venture…but in 1798 he had to leave the country to do it.

Next Month - Part 2: Going West… Again

Credits: This story was developed over the years with the primary sources being Moses Austin: His Life by David B. Gracy II, The Life of Stephen F. Austin by Eugene C. Barker, Stephen F. Austin Empressario of Texas by Gregg Cantrell, and direct contact with descendents of Moses Austin. The information has become so intermixed that it would be awkward, if not impossible, to footnote each piece. In any case, I thank my sources for the excellent information for this series.